Passenger flow management system

ABSTRACT

A passenger flow management system can manage passenger flow such that elevator waiting times may be limited. The management system includes a detector configured to detect elevator passengers within a detection area located outside the building.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to systems for managing elevator passenger flow.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

In present elevator systems, the elevator passenger may use portable communication/identification devices such as rfid tags or mobile radio systems for sending control messages to elevator control system. For example, in some elevator systems it is possible to use mobile phone or smart card to give a destination call to elevator.

However, in urban environments there is a need for even more sophisticated solutions. For example, it is not always possible to increase elevator capacity whilst number of people using elevator is growing. This may have the effect that elevator waiting times become too long.

SUMMARY

Therefore it is object of the present invention to introduce an improved system for managing passenger flow inside and outside of a building such that waiting times of elevator located inside the building may be optimized, preferably reduced. This object is solved with the passenger flow management system according to independent claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.

According to the invention, it possible that the elevator of for example residence building or work place is always there waiting for the passenger and ready to transport to his floor without him doing anything, without even pressing a call button.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is hereinafter described by the aid of the drawings. In these show

FIG. 1 area within which the elevator is capable of detecting people's presence

FIG. 2 passenger detecting solution implementing rfid readers

FIG. 3 passenger detecting solution implementing GPS-GSM technology

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows people going towards an elevator inside a building (not shown), and assuming also they want to go always or usually to the same floor.

The circular area 2 around the elevator represents an area within which the elevator is capable of detecting people's presence. The idea is that users of an elevator are registered with it and given some smart card or device which contains their data and destination floor. When a registered user carrying such card enters the detecting area 2 the elevator will read the card info and go to the first floor and register the destination floor from the card.

Therefore this gives more time to the elevator to start coming down, for example, the elevator will receive the destination call from the card when the user is 50 metres away and thus improving the probability that the user will find the elevator waiting for him/her.

The detection area 2 can be made smaller or larger depending, for example, on the number of floors of the building or the amount of users and typical traffic conditions.

Additionally the usability of the elevator for non-registered users must be also taken into account; in this case, users will revert to the traditional push-button call giving.

Usage Scenarios

The usage scenarios can vary depending on following variable parameters:

-   -   number of floors     -   number of people simultaneously requesting elevator use     -   traffic condition variations during the day/night

We describe below some usage scenarios depending on variations of these parameters and also general considerations:

1) Single User

This is the simplest case. When going into the building, the elevator detects his presence in advance and go to ground floor waiting for him; when detecting that the user is close enough it start opening the doors and waiting for the user to enter. When the user is inside the elevator, the elevator can detect it and can close the door and start going to the user's registered floor.

On the opposite direction, when user exits his apartment and wanting to go out, the elevator can detect the user (smart card) proximity to a landing door and automatically register a call to ground floor; when user is inside the elevator it closes the door and goes to the ground floor.

2) Many Users

Assuming there are 10 registered users going towards the elevator, plus some non-registered users. As soon as a registered user is within the detection area, the elevator starts recording the corresponding destination calls. When at the ground floor, the elevator can start collecting passengers and might decide waiting for other passengers which were detected and not yet inside the elevator. In this situation a user might decide not to wait and press the door-close button instead.

If the car becomes full, then the elevator is able to detect it and can start moving. It will be able to detect all users which are inside the car and therefore serving only these registered destination calls, others remaining pending. It will serve those calls plus the manually given calls.

When other registered users are at landing floors, the elevator will collect them during the downward trip.

When users reach their destination floors, the elevator assumes that the user doesn't want to immediately go back and therefore doesn't register a new destination call; for example this can be done with a timeout of, let say 5 to 10 minutes; if the user do need to go back, he should give an explicit manual floor call.

Alternatively the elevator intelligence can be improved by giving it the capacity to detect which direction the person is moving: if a person exits the elevator to ground floor and start walking back, or if the user doesn't exits the elevator within some timeout (for example about 10 seconds) then the elevator can smartly assume that the user intends to go back to his floor. For example, if the user remembers to have forgotten something and intends to go back, all he has to do is stay inside the elevator and it will take it back. Therefore the elevator can be thought of a means of transporting a user between 2 registered points (floors) in an endless way if the user decides to remain inside it.

Also some priority schemes could be devised, for example give priority to registered users over non-registered ones, i.e. calls for registered users would be served first without stopping at intermediate manually requested positions.

Also there is the possibility that a registered user can give a manual call, in such case the elevator must have the ability to cancel some registered user destination call if it detects that the user exited earlier at a different destination.

Additional Possibilities

If a smart device is used instead of a smart card, it could give the possibility for the user to update its personal preferences, ex. the destination call, enable/disable the automatic call service, etc.

A futuristic scenario can be imagined where the elevator would have the ability to “talk” to its users: “Good morning Mr. Alexander, I see you forgot something, I'll take you back shortly to your floor” Or “Welcome Mr. Alexander, destination floor 33 has been registered for you, I will travel directly to your destination, you are the only user requesting my service at this moment”.

System Design and Implementation

In this chapter details of realization possibilities and required technologies for implementation are given.

First of all the technologies to be considered are:

-   -   RFID     -   Real-Time Locating     -   GPS and Galileo Positioning Systems     -   GSM

With the combination of the above technologies it is possible to provide the elevator with registered users real-time location and therefore making decision on the destination calls automatic allocation.

It can be also decided whether this must work only for the outside/ground floor or also to all or only some of the other floors. For higher floors the detection rule is clearly different since it is not wanted to locate movement inside people's apartments.

The location system has to be able to:

-   -   detect people presence within the ground floor detection area,         possibly including area outside the building.     -   detect people presence at landings at other floors     -   detect people moving direction     -   detect when people are inside the car

Below are proposed 2 different design of the locating service using different combinations of technologies and later advantages and disadvantages of the solutions are compared.

RFID Implementation

RFID has a limited range for detection, therefore a network of readers would need to be implemented, as shown in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2 the bigger circle represent the total detection area 2 around the elevator and in the middle, is represented the elevator location 3. The other smaller circles are the single reader nodes 1 detection ranges. In such case, as people move through this area, each receiver will detect the presence and send the corresponding info to the elevator; after that the next reader 1 will send the info and from these 2 readings the elevator can determine the moving direction of the person, i.e. if they are moving towards the elevator or not; the readers transmit therefore their unique identification tag and the read card info to the elevator central controller.

At other floors it is probably enough to have 1 reader at the landing floor and maybe a reduced detection range. Also the RFID reader inside the car should cover only the car inside area for accurately deciding on passenger presence.

GPS-GSM Implementation

The above RFID solution is limited because it does not have a required precision in implementing the locating service. Other similar radio technologies can improve on that.

For a more precise location and positioning system solution, the GPS system coupled with GSM can be used. There is however a limitation in that GPS signals don't work indoor. A future improvement will come from the Galileo project which is scheduled to be ready in a few years time and which promises higher accuracy and possibility to work indoor. This design solution would be implemented as illustrated in FIG. 3.

In this scheme, all the user needs is a mobile phone with a GPS receiver integrated (In the future Galileo receiver). A special software on the phone knows the GPS coordinates of the elevator, and when it comes within its predefined detection area, it will start sending location info to the elevator through the GSM network. Also the elevator will know its GPS location and can therefore calculate the real-time movement of people within the detection area.

With the Galileo system this scheme would work also inside the building, so no additional receivers would be needed.

TABLE 1 Designs Comparison Method Advantages Disadvantages RFID Technology already available. Locating precision. All info stored in a smart card. Need to build a reader node network GPS-GSM Higher position info accuracy. Galileo not yet available. No need to build additional Cost of using GSM network? hardware around the elevator User needs a phone with Possibility to use the phone for GPS receiver customizing the elevator user data

The invention is not restricted to the above embodiments. For example, even though above embodiments have been disclosed in connection with elevator systems, invention may be applied also to escalator systems or travelator systems. 

1. A passenger flow management system for managing passenger flow such that elevator waiting times can be optimized, wherein the management system comprises a detector configured to detect elevator passengers within a detection area located at least outside the building.
 2. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the number of floors of the building.
 3. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the amount of users of the building.
 4. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the traffic conditions.
 5. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the detector is configured to detect a position of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 6. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the detector is configured to detect a moving direction of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 7. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the detector is configured to detect a number of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 8. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the detector is configured to identify elevator passengers within the detection area.
 9. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the passenger flow management system is operable to generate an elevator call request according to information obtained from the detector.
 10. The passenger flow management system according to claim 1, wherein the detection area is located around an elevator inside the building.
 11. The passenger flow management system according to claim 2, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the amount of users of the building.
 12. The passenger flow management system according to claim 2, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the traffic conditions.
 13. The passenger flow management system according to claim 3, wherein the size of the detection area is determined according to the traffic conditions.
 14. The passenger flow management system according to claim 2, wherein the detector is configured to detect a position of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 15. The passenger flow management system according to claim 3, wherein the detector is configured to detect a position of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 16. The passenger flow management system according to claim 4, wherein the detector is configured to detect a position of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 17. The passenger flow management system according to claim 2, wherein the detector is configured to detect a moving direction of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 18. The passenger flow management system according to claim 3, wherein the detector is configured to detect a moving direction of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 19. The passenger flow management system according to claim 4, wherein the detector is configured to detect a moving direction of elevator passengers within the detection area.
 20. The passenger flow management system according to claim 5, wherein the detector is configured to detect a moving direction of elevator passengers within the detection area. 